


paranoia and pickaxes

by Engineer104



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Awkwardness, F/M, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route, Fluff, Post-Time Skip, Pre-Relationship, no really, the buddy system
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:09:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27717970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Engineer104/pseuds/Engineer104
Summary: Returning to the monastery was not as peaceable as it should’ve been, so everyone takes precautions.This does not stop Felix from worrying.
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Comments: 22
Kudos: 66





	paranoia and pickaxes

**Author's Note:**

> dumb fluff dumb fluff dumb fluff dumb fluff enjoy!

They swept the monastery for stragglers and spies after defeating the thieves, but the professor and Gustave still insisted no one should wander the dilapidated grounds alone, least of all as far as the cathedral in ruins. 

So Annette did not wander alone, usually, except when she failed to find Mercie or Lysithea and she grew impatient and  _ cold _ with her hair still damp under her hood from a bath and she eventually gave up and started towards the old administration building, eager to start the day’s chores. 

She barely left the quiet, gloomy dormitory when a voice cut in behind her, “Where are you going alone?”

Annette froze then immediately regretted it because that made it easier to feel the biting cold. She shivered as she turned around, already knowing who she’d see because even if it was a hair deeper than she remembered she still knew Felix’s voice. 

And of course he stood just behind her, arms crossed over his chest and face half-hidden under his hood. His breath misted out in front of him just like hers, but in that moment he looked far more composed than Annette, calm while she’d more or less been sneaking out and steady while she shivered. 

At least he wouldn’t know how her heart skipped a beat at seeing him. Probably wouldn’t know. Most likely. Definitely, unless it showed on her face. 

Goddess. She cleared her throat and hoped it did  _ not _ show on her face. 

“Th-the library,” she said, nearly biting her tongue. “Lots of cleaning and reorganizing to do after five years of bandits and war! A-and who knows what got ransacked in that time.” Saints, even as she thought about it she mourned the old texts and tablets in their broken display cases. So many unique originals...gone to thieves and vagabonds who wouldn’t appreciate them. 

It made her sick to her stomach and not a little frustrated. And how had she spent the last five years, safe in Dominic keeping her uncle’s dwindling accounts while others - including her classmates, including the one standing before her now - risked their lives to—

“You shouldn’t be going that far alone,” Felix chided her. 

“Look at you following rules,” Annette grumbled. She couldn’t help her flickering irritation, but when he turned his face she regretted directing it at him. It wasn’t his fault they could no longer take the monastery’s safety for granted. 

Especially not when some of the danger came from within. 

“Y-you know,” she offered, “I was waiting for Mercie or Lysithea to go with, but if you’re not busy you can come with me instead.” Then, because it was easier to deflect, and he could  _ not _ know how much she wanted him to agree now that the request slipped past her lips, she added, “I-if you’re not busy, that is.”

Felix shifted, and the barest hint of a smile crossed his face. “You already said that.”

Heat rushed to her face, so she said, “Shut up. Will you go with me or not?”

“Fine,” he said without hesitation. “All right.” He walked past her, his shoulder brushing hers as the path gave them little room, and said, “And after the library you can walk me to the training grounds?”

Annette chased after him, only slightly resentful of his longer stride. “Awfully bold of you to assume I won’t be cleaning the library all day,” she said as she caught up to him, harsh breaths misting in front of her. 

Felix half-turned towards her. “It wouldn’t kill you to—“ He cut off, head jerking around in search of something. 

Annette stared at him, confused, but it didn’t take her long to hear what he did:

Steel scraping against stone. 

“What—“

He shoved her against the wall, hidden by an outcropping. Her heart jumped into her throat, but before she could muster too much indignation he stepped in after her, and stood...awfully close. 

Very close.  _ Way _ too close. Not nearly close enough. 

His hood had fallen from his head, and even in the shadow of the outcropping Annette had a perfect view of his sharp profile, especially with his face turned and eyes narrowed. One of his hands grabbed for the hilt of his sword, but the other braced him against the wall over her head, bracketing  _ her _ in. 

Cold stone dug into her back as she pressed against it. She held her breath and half-hoped she could melt backwards into it, away from him and the warmth he emanated from  _ so close _ , even as she drew magic into her core and let it flood her to her fingertips, as guarded and straining for a hostile sound as him. 

Annette raised a hand and let her fingers brush against his coat while her heart beat against her ribs, syncopated like a wardrum. At least this close Felix shielded her from the cold, though she couldn’t tell if it was the proximity or just all that heat rising to her skin. 

She stiffened when the scraping sounded again, straining to peer around Felix’s shoulder. He glanced in the same direction and immediately deflated. 

His hand fell from the wall to scrape over his face. “I…”

“Paranoid a bit?” Annette guessed, though his back - was he also  _ bigger _ now or was that just his coat? - blocked her view. 

The war made Felix paranoid, or maybe he’d always been that way and she just hadn’t noticed. 

He nodded slowly but stepped away from her, sighing through his nose. “Sorry,” he mumbled. 

He didn’t look at her, but she thought his ears had turned red. 

Cold without his hood then, probably. In a fit of daring - and thanks to the tension in her body leaving her feeling like a sad scrap of paper left in a damp place - she grabbed his hood and tugged it back over his head. 

When he lowered his hand and his gaze snapped to hers, she froze all over again, with her fingers still grasping his hood. 

And her heartbeat just would  _ not _ stop drowning out all other sounds, not with Felix’s molten bronze eyes on her. 

Maybe she should’ve waited for Mercie a little longer, maybe Lysithea would’ve shown her face, maybe Ashe had been lurking and was waiting to jump out of the bushes and frighten her even though he would never actually do that. 

Maybe she should—

Another harsh scraping sound burst the bubble, and Annette dropped Felix’s hood and jumped back. She would’ve fallen backwards against the wall all over again too if not for his hand grabbing her arm and jerking her back upright. 

They stood there like that for a long moment, his fingers wrapped securely around her arm as if he was worried she’d fall again (not entirely paranoia, considering how clumsy she was), and her hand hovering over his shoulder. For a heartbeat Annette thought -  _ absurdly _ \- that Felix would pull her into an embrace, but—

“Annette, Felix!” Ashe’s chipper voice called from a few paces away. Felix let go of Annette and spun around - he  _ still _ reached for his sword; what was wrong with him? - while Ashe waved. “Didn’t see you hiding over there!”

Annette’s face burned again. “W-we weren’t hiding!” she retorted. “We thought we heard...something. Metal scraping.”

Ashe raised an eyebrow then raised a...pickaxe. “This thing?” he asked. Then, as if to demonstrate, he swung it against the stone steps leading down from the dormitory. 

Steel scraping against stone, and ice chipping out from the gaps. 

“Sorry if I startled you,” he said with a sheepish smile. “I, uh, I volunteered to scrape ice off the traveled paths so no one would slip.” 

“That’s very kind of you, Ashe,” Annette said. She swallowed a sudden surge of irritation, because why should she be annoyed? At least he wasn’t a bandit that escaped their notice.

She glanced towards Felix, half-expecting him to ask Ashe why  _ he _ was alone, but he only crossed his arms and frowned at the half-frozen stone steps as if they’d disappointed him. 

Well, it could be awfully easy to disappoint Felix, so maybe they had!

“Ashe, should you be out alone?” Annette wondered. “My f—the professor didn’t want anyone to go around alone.”

“Oh, um...Caspar said he’d join me,” Ashe admitted, “but I think he forgot.”

“Then maybe I—“

“Oh, it’s fine,” he said. “I’m sure he’ll be along any minute! You go do whatever you and Felix were up to.” Ashe glanced at Felix then and grinned. “It looked more important anyway.”

“The library,” Felix mumbled. He walked down the steps and stood beside Ashe before looking up - for once; though at least he hadn’t grown  _ taller _ since they were students - at her. 

Annette slipped on a patch of ice going down the steps, but even with that awful rush of embarrassment she couldn’t feel too bad about it when Felix caught her around the waist at the bottom. 

And held on for a beat longer than necessary, not that she would complain. 

**Author's Note:**

> i can’t remember the last time i wrote something with actual emotional depth but you know what? i don’t care! i embrace the fluff
> 
> anyway i hope everyone’s safe, and may this make the week a little brighter <3


End file.
